2 man play about Nixon & Kissinger (Wash. DC)

On Aug. 8, 1974, in a nationally televised speech, President Richard M. Nixon announced his resignation.

The night before, Nixon met with his secretary of state, Henry Kissinger, in the Lincoln Sitting Room. What transpired is the fodder for "Nixon's Nixon," a politically charged satire by Russell Lees beginning Wednesday at the Round House Theatre in Bethesda.

The two-man play takes an imaginative look at that late-night discussion in which Nixon and Kissinger relive their triumphs and failures in a way that is funny and surprisingly poignant. "Nixon's Nixon" was first produced at the Round House in 1999, with Edward Gero (Nixon) and Conrad Feininger (Kissinger) as the leads. Both stars have returned, reprising their roles.

Frank Gannon, who was special assistant to Nixon at the time, remembers watching the historic speech on a small television in the White House press office. "The mood was certainly somber, as you might expect," recalls Gannon, who spent the evening packing up his office, as soon-to-be President Gerald Ford and staff would be moving in the next day.